Synopses & Reviews
Perhaps Dickens's best-loved work, Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, a young man with few prospects for advancement until a mysterious benefactor allows him to escape the Kent marshes for a more promising life in London. Despite his good fortune, Pip is haunted by figures from his
past--the escaped convict Magwitch, the time-withered Miss Havisham, and her proud and beautiful ward, Estella--and in time uncovers not just the origins of his great expectations but the mystery of his own heart. A powerful and moving novel, Great Expectations is suffused with Dickens's memories of
the past and its grip on the present, and it raises disturbing questions about the extent to which individuals affect each other's lives. This edition reprints the definitive Clarendon text. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's new introduction ranges widely across critical issues raised by the novel: its
biographical genesis, ideas of origin and progress and what makes a gentleman, memory, melodrama, and the book's critical reception. The book includes four appendices and the fullest set of critical notes in any mass-market edition.
Synopsis
From the agony of Charles Dickens' disenchantment with the Victorian middle class comes a novel of spellbinding mystery and a profound examination of moral values.
An orphan living with his older sister and her kindly husband, Pip is hired by wealthy and embittered Miss Havisham as a companion for her and her beautiful adopted daughter, Estella. His years in service to the Havishams fill his heart with the desire to rise above his station in life. Pip's wish is fulfilled when a mysterious benefactor provides him with "great expectations"--the means to be tutored as a gentleman.
Thrust into London's high-society circles, Pip grows accustomed to a life of leisure, only to find himself lacking as a suitor competing for Estella's favor. After callously discarding everything he once valued for his own selfish pursuits, Pip learns the identity of his patron--a revelation that shatters his very soul.
With an Introduction by Stanley Weintraub
and an Afterword by Annabel Davis-Goff
Synopsis
DON'T MISS THE GREAT EXPECTATIONS ORIGINAL SERIES STARRING OLIVIA COLMAN--NOW STREAMING ONLY ON HULU From the agony of Charles Dickens' disenchantment with the Victorian middle class comes a profound novel of spellbinding mystery...
An orphan living with his older sister and her kindly husband, Pip is hired by wealthy and embittered Miss Havisham as a companion for her and her beautiful adopted daughter, Estella. His years in service to the Havishams fill his heart with the desire to rise above his station in life. Pip's wish is fulfilled when a mysterious benefactor provides him with "great expectations"--the means to be tutored as a gentleman.
Thrust into London's high-society circles, Pip grows accustomed to a life of leisure, only to find himself lacking as a suitor competing for Estella's favor. After callously discarding everything he once valued for his own selfish pursuits, Pip learns the identity of his patron--a revelation that shatters his very soul.
With an Introduction by Stanley Weintraub
and an Afterword by Annabel Davis-Goff
Synopsis
Dickens’ epic literary Masterpiece From the agony of Charles Dickens’ disenchantment with the Victorian middle class comes a novel of spellbinding mystery and a profound examination of moral values—this is the story of the orphan Pip’s trials and tribulations among London’s high society circles.
Synopsis
Great Expectations tells the unforgettable story of the orphan Pip and his coming of age with the help of a mysterious benefactor. It is at once an expertly crafted novel and a profound reappraisal of the Victorian middle class and its values.
Synopsis
Dickens’ epic literary Masterpiece From the agony of Charles Dickens’ disenchantment with the Victorian middle class comes a novel of spellbinding mystery and a profound examination of moral values—this is the story of the orphan Pip’s trials and tribulations among London’s high society circles.
@piMp The walk was a bad idea. I met a prisoner who demanded bread and a file. He looks like a pederast. And a murderer. Amber alert?
From Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less
About the Author
Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsea, England. He died in Kent on June 9, 1870. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know not only hunger and privation,but also the horror of the infamous debtors prison and the evils of child labor. A turn of fortune in the shape of a legacy brought release from the nightmare of prison and “slave” factories and afforded Dickens the opportunity of two years formal schooling at Wellington House Academy. He worked as an attorneys clerk and newspaper reporter until his Sketches by Boz (1836) and The Pickwick Papers (1837) brought him the amazing and instant success that was to be his for the remainder of his life. In later years, the pressure of serial writing, editorial duties, lectures, and social commitments led to his separation from Catherine Hogarth after twenty-three years of marriage. It also hastened his death at the age of fifty-eight, when he was characteristically engaged in a multitude of work.
Stanley Weintraub is Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Pennsylvania State University, and the author of numerous histories and biographies, including Silent Night (available from Plume).
Stanley Weintraub is Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Pennsylvania State University, and the author of numerous histories and biographies, including Silent Night (available from Plume).